The following is the transliteration and translation of the transcription on page 105.
29. a-na D.P.[6] Kha-za-ki-ya-hu to Hezekiah.
30. D.P. Ya-hu-da-â id-di-nu-su nak-ris of the Jews they gave him as an enemy In a
a-na zil-li e-śir-su dungeon he shut him up.
31. ip-lukh lab-ba-su-un sarrani mat Their heart feared. The kings of the country
Mu-tsu-ri of Egypt,
32. D.P. tsabi D.P. mitpani D.P. narkabaté the men of bows and chariots,
D.P. sisē sa sar D.P. Me-lukh-khi the horses of the king of Meluḥḥi,
33. e-mu-ḳi la ni-bi ik-te-ru-nim-ma a force without number they brought together
il-li-ku and they marched to
34. ri-tsu-uś-śu-un. i-na ta-mir-ti their aid. In the sight of the city
D.P. Al-ta-ḳu-u Altaku
35. el-la-mu-u-a śi-id-ru rit-ku-nu before me the order of battle they had placed,
u-sa-a'-lu they appealed to
36. D.P. kakk-su-un i-na tukulti D.P. Assur their weapons. By the support of Assur
beli-ya it-ti-su-un my lord with them
37. am-da-khi-its-ma as-ta-kan hapikta-su-un I fought and I accomplished their overthrow;
38. D.P. beli-narkabate u abli sarrani the charioteers and the sons of the kings of
D.P. Mu-tsu-ra-â the Egyptians
39. a-di D.P. beli-narkabate sa sar together with the charioteers of the king of
D.P. Me-lukh-khi bal-ḍu-śu-un Meluḥḥi alive
40. i-na ḳabal tam-kha-ri ik-su-da ḳatā in the midst of battle my two hands captured.
D.P. Al-ta-ḳu-u The city Altaku
41. D.P. Ta-am-na-a al-me aks-ud and the city Tāmnā I besieged I captured
as-lu-la sal-la-śun I carried away their spoil.
Here, for instance, is a riddle propounded to Nergal and the other gods by 'the wise man,' such as Orientals still delight in:
'What is (found) in the house; what is (concealed) in the secret place; what is (fixed) in the foundation of the house; what exists on the floor of the house; what is (perceived) in the lower part (of the house); what goes down by the sides of the house; what in the ditch of the house (makes) broad furrows; what roars like a bull; what brays like an ass; what flutters like a sail; what bleats like a sheep; what barks like a dog; what growls like a bear; what enters into a man; what enters into a woman?' The answer is, of course, the air or wind.
Among the most treasured portions of the library of Nineveh was the poetical literature, comprising epics, hymns to the gods, psalms and songs. Fifteen of these songs, we are told, were arranged on the eastern and northern sides of the building, 'on the western side being nine songs to Assur, Bel the voice of the firmament, the Southern Sun,' and another god. The mention of songs to Assur shows that there were some which were of Assyrian origin. The epics, however, all came from Babylonia, and were partly translations from Accadian, partly independent compositions of Semitic Babylonian poets. The names of the reputed authors of many of them have come down to us. Thus the great epic of Gisdhubar was ascribed to Sin-liki-unnini; the legend of Etána to Nis-Sin; the fable of the fox to Ru-Merodach the son of Nitakh-Dununa.
The epic of Gisdhubar, as has already been stated, contained the account of the Deluge, introduced as an episode into the eleventh book. It consisted in all of twelve books, and was arranged upon an astronomical principle, the subject-matter of each of the books being made to correspond with one of the signs of Zodiac. Thus the fifth book records the death of a monstrous lion at the hands of Gisdhubar, answering to the Zodiacal Leo; in the sixth book the hero is vainly wooed by Istar, the Virgo of the Zodiacal signs; and just as Aquarius is in the eleventh Zodiacal sign, so the history of the Deluge is embodied in the eleventh book. There was a special reason, however, for this arrangement; Gisdhubar himself was a solar hero. He seems originally to have been the fire-stick of the primitive Accadians, and then the god or spirit of the fire it produced, eventually in the Semitic period passing first into a form of the Sun-god, and then into a solar hero. His twelve labours or adventures answer to the twelve months of the year through which the sun moves, like the twelve labours of the Greek Hêraklês. The latter, indeed, were simply the twelve labours of Gisdhubar transported to the west. The Greeks received many myths and mythological conceptions from the Phœnicians, along with their early culture, and these myths had themselves been brought by the Phœnicians from their original home in Chaldea. It has long been recognised that Hêraklês was the borrowed Phœnician Sun-god; we now know that his primitive prototype had been adopted by the Phœnicians from the Accadians of Babylonia. It is not strange, therefore, that just as in the Greek myth of Aphroditê and Adônis we find the outlines of the old Chaldean story of Istar and Tammuz, so in the legends of Hêraklês we find an echo of the legends of Gisdhubar. The lion destroyed by Gisdhubar is the lion of Nemea; the winged bull made by Anu to avenge the slight offered to Istar is the winged bull of Krete; the tyrant Khumbaba, slain by Gisdhubar in 'the land of pine-trees, the seat of the gods, the sanctuary of the spirits' is the tyrant Geryôn; the gems borne by the trees of the forest beyond 'the gateway of the sun' are the apples of the Hesperides; and the deadly sickness of Gisdhubar himself is but the fever sent by the poisoned tunic of Nessos through the veins of the Greek hero. It is curious thus to trace to their first source the myths which have made so deep an impress on classical art and literature. The indebtedness of European culture to the valley of the Euphrates is becoming more and more apparent every year.